Little did Janhavi Gadkar think when she went out for her evening drink with her friends two days ago, that she will be cooling her heels in police custody, with nothing to think about but what her evening of fun has done to her life – and the life of two families. But this post is NOT about her, or drunken driving, or the right punishment or any of that.…
Personal excellence
Haves and Have nots…………………………
Selvi’s day starts at 4am, rain or shine. Selvi is a tea picker in Anamalai. After getting her family off to work and school, she starts work at 8 am, and goes back to complete household chores till 9 pm, by when she is ready to drop. And her work is in the open tea gardens, a very scenic setting for a holiday, but to work? When the sun is…
Make it count
‘No tiger, sorry. No leopards either L’ said the naturalist. This was the story of my first jeep safari into the famous reserve forest, the tiger sanctuary. And this was after getting up at 430 am, and rushing to the line to get a good seat in the jeep… Not one to give up easily, I went in the same evening. The resort staff was emphatic that evening safari’s are…
If life had a rewind button……………
A few years ago, I was nominated into a leadership training program. Lot of pre-work as usual, where the course organizers fondly believe the participants love to complete. One though, was interesting – it asked a set of deeply introspective questions that one had to respond to. One was ‘If you were given a chance to go back and change your past, what will you change in your life?’ Me…
Learning & Growing – Age no bar!!
My sister-in-law decided at fifty seven that she was sick and tired of autos and cabs, and bought herself a car. Then she decided that she didn’t enjoy being at the mercy of paid drivers, and learnt to drive herself around in the lovely Chennai traffic. At 60 she was gifted her first Smartphone and discovered the magical world of apps and whatsapp, gaana and skype, messaging all and sundry,…
Curiosity did not kill this cat!
I am not an engineer. I did not learn to write code, learn programming languages, nothing! I do not have any kind of formal education on anything to do with technology. As a matter of fact, my first introduction to computers was when I joined, in 1990, the Hotel Management School, and had to roster my students into the practical sessions. I had to do this, to my horror, on…
A haircut and some entrepreneur lessons…………
Last weekend, I went to Harish, my favourite hairstylist. I have followed him from salon to salon, till he opened his own salon 4 years ago. I just don’t get my hair cut anywhere else – and all who read this will understand that if you are lucky to find a great hair stylist, you will do the same; because, he makes you feel beautiful or handsome as the case…
Be a Man, Man!(woman)
We were at a friend’s wedding yesterday. A grand show, love in the air, good wishes from family and friends, great food (of course!). We had planned to drive back to Bangalore the same day, so tried to make an early exit. But when we reached the car park of the wedding hall, we found one cute little car, with a large ‘L’ board, parked so precisely that it blocked…
The importance of being earnest
Last month, a bunch of us were subject to a presentation by a potential partner, who was trying to sell us their offering – a new service concept. Their concept was one that is probably exciting and new to some organizations, but happens to be a best practice within our business group. It is something that we had adopted and built on for a while now, something that, over a…
Heroes with feet of clay………
I had this teacher in college who was almost a cult leader. He was the Pied Piper to every single student, male and female. He was passionate about the course he taught, and passionate about us; he was so invested in each one of us, he put enormous energy and effort into shaping our careers; he was larger than just the course, you could get a conversation going with him…